Summary

Relena heads into space again with her father. Lady Une tells Darlian that she hopes he has a successful trip, but he ignores her. She comments that there’s nothing wrong with socializing, and he responds that he has nothing to discuss with a Specials officer. Darlian tells Relena to never forget how beautiful Earth looks from a distance, and Une thinks to herself that he’ll never see it again. Back on Earth, Heero gets new orders to take out an OZ supply base in the North Pacific Ocean. After arriving at a colony, Darlian is greeted by a colony representative, who comments that the rumors of Earth’s financial crisis must not be true. Darlian says he wishes that were the only rumor on Earth, and another representative mentions the rumor that the colonies are planning to attack Earth. The representative says they’d never do that, and Une says that’s what she’s there to determine. Relena settles down in her hotel room and wonders how people on Earth could think that the peaceful colonists want to start a war. The colony representative tells Une that she can’t sit in on the meeting because she doesn’t have diplomatic authorization from Earth. She leaves the room and activates a bomb inside a makeup compact. She comments that in 10 minutes, everything will end, or rather, begin. After Une leaves, Relena exits the elevator and knocks on the door to tell her father that she’s going shopping. She notices the compact and assumes that Une forgot it, so she takes it with her. Inside the meeting, the colony representatives tell Darlian that they’ve never heard of Operation Meteor or new mobile suits. With 10 seconds left on the clock, Relena gives the compact back to Une. Une grabs it and throws it through the window just before it explodes. Relena runs into the building, and Une orders her men to kill Relena if she resists. Relena finds her father under a pile of rubble, and several rebels help pull him out. The OZ soldiers run into the room, and both sides trade machine gun fire. Relena doesn’t want to go with the rebels, but one of them tells her she’ll be killed if she doesn’t. They load her and Darlian into a van and escape just as the OZ soldiers catch up. Une tries to block the van’s path and shoot it, but her bullets bounce off the windshield, and she’s forced to jump out of the way. One of the rebels gives Relena an injection to calm her down. Relena asks them to take Darlian to a hospital, but they tell her it’s too risky with OZ around. Darlian wakes up and tells Relena that he’s not her biological father. He tells Relena that she’s from the Peacecraft family that once advocated total pacifism. Their kingdom was destroyed long ago by the Alliance, and as an escaping senator, Darlian took her in as his daughter. Darlian warns Relena about OZ and dies, and she passes out from the sedative. An old man named Howard tells Duo that his Gundam has been repaired. Quatre asks Trowa for his name as he leaves, and Trowa answers that he has no name, but can be called Trowa Barton. Rashid asks Quatre if it’s ok to let him leave, but Quatre says it’s ok. Wufei sneaks onto an aircraft carrier, and Heero takes off for his mission.

Zechs leaves Otto in charge of the Tallgeese‘s repairs. Noin wonders if a 20-year-old mobile suit will be any good, and Zechs says it’s probably more advanced than any current OZ suit. Noin doesn’t believe that, and Zechs explains that the Tallgeese is the prototype for all mobile suits, including the Gundams. Relena wakes up, and one of the rebels tells her that if they’d learned about things earlier, they could’ve avoided this tragedy. She then sees Une on the TV, and Une blames the attack on colony terrorists. Une says that if this attack represents the feelings of the entire colony, the Alliance will have to take action. Relena blames the rebels for not taking Darlian to the hospital and grabs one of their guns. She proclaims that she’ll get revenge on OZ and doesn’t care if she’s killed in the process. Relena says she wants to see Heero, and a strange man named Doctor J asks her if she means Heero Yuy. Zechs and Noin watch Une’s press conference, and he commends Une for her acting. Noin asks Zechs if he’s worried and thinks to herself that he needs to open his heart, which is filled with secrets. Heero begins his mission and destroys two guard Leos at the OZ supply base. Three Aries are sent to investigate, but he takes them out with a single shot. Relena rides with Doctor J in a car and asks if he sent Heero to Earth. He answers that Heero is one of their agents, trained since childhood to be a professional assassin. His purpose is to help bring peace to the colonies, and Relena says killing people won’t bring peace. Doctor J responds that wars are started and ended by people, and Heero is trained to attack those who start wars. Relena thinks there has to be a peaceful solution, and he says he thought so too 20 years ago. In AC 175, the colonists lived peacefully under the leadership of Heero Yuy (whose name inspired Heero’s code name). But Heero Yuy the leader was assassinated by OZ, and relations have been strained between the colonies and the Alliance ever since. Relena recalls Darlian’s warning about OZ and asks whom Heero is fighting. Doctor J explains that Heero’s mission is to fight OZ and stop their ambition of taking over the Alliance and the Earth Sphere. The Wing Gundam is about to blast the control tower at the OZ base, but the Gundam Deathscythe destroys it first. Duo asks for a response, and Heero locks on to him. Relena asks Doctor J if he helped her because she’s Darlian’s daughter, but answers that it’s because she had the same look in her eyes as Heero. He says that Heero is actually kind-hearted, but also dedicated to the mission, and so Relena should keep her distance if she wants to live. The ground shifts beneath Duo, and Heero blasts a Leo that was about to attack him. Heero says he’s returned the favor and takes off. Relena cries on her shuttle flight back to Earth and thinks to herself that she’ll always be Darlian’s daughter.

Commentary

The plots that OZ has been working on in the background are being set into motion. Darlian is a sensible guy who wants to create peace between the Alliance and the colonies. Of course, this puts him in the path of OZ’s militaristic ambitions, and this leads to his assassination. Despite Relena’s intervention, it all goes off perfectly, and Une is able to blame it on colonial terrorists. Of course, Relena knows the truth, but she also learns something more startling. Darlian’s not really her father, and she’s from the Peacecraft family that advocated total pacifism. Zechs is also a Peacecraft, and the masked man having a younger sister shouldn’t be a surprise to any Gundam fan. It’s interesting to see how utterly ruthless Une is in completing her mission – she’s clearly not above killing innocent civilians and children. We’re also introduced to the strange Doctor J, the man behind Heero. He sheds some light on Heero’s background, as well as the political tensions between Earth and space. This certainly isn’t the end of OZ’s machinations.

Original Review: November 24, 2000

Overall Rating
4/5

Gundam Wing Info

Director(s):
Masashi Ikeda
Shinji Takamatsu

Writer(s):
Katsuyuki Sumisawa
Akemi Omode
Toshifumi Kawase
Masashi Ikeda
Katsuhiko Chiba

Mechanical Designer(s):
Kunio Okawara
Hajime Katoki
Junya Ishigaki

Character Designer:
Shukou Murase

Musical Composer:
Ko Otani

Format:
49 episodes

Airdates:
Japan 04.07.1995 – 03.29.1996
U.S. 03.06.2000 – 05.11.2000

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